Old nonwelfare poor indivduals living in hotels in the central cores of most metropolitan areas have received little attention in previous research. Nor has research focused on the unseen community-the informal social arrangements by which they meet their mental health needs and avoid dependency. These self-reliant individuals, who are marginally subsistent, lead a precarious existence. They are a population at risk, subject to major dislocations in their lives: from changes in their personal needs, in economic conditions, and in the urban environment. Scheduled redevelopment of metropolitan areas could produce a new problem population--nine out of ten of these individuals are not now on welfare. Research aims are to: 1) describe the formal and informal social structures of a hotel for the nonwelfare poor; 2) compare the social structures of a middle-class and a skid-row hotel to the target hotel in order to isolate its unique features; 3) describe the adaptive mechanisms used by the residents to support their mental health needs, how the mechanisms differ in the three hotels, and how they change over time; 4) develop a set of recommendations for mental health delivery systems that emphasize the adaptive strength of marginally subsistent individuals and utilize the supportive strengths of the social structures of their residential units; 5) provide basic information on an important type of resident arrangement, so that a long-term project in American household patterns can be undertaken. Procedures are: 1) continuous participant observation in the hotels and surrounding area focused on everyday life and social interactions; 2) panel interviews with a random sample of residents; 3) urban change observations to register environmental effects; and 4) collaborative planning seminars with stakeholders--residents, practitioners, official, and minority representatives-- to focus multiple perspectives upon the design, procedures, and recommendations.